Yukon Kuskokwim Nushagak science

I don’t know if the regional school districts have any preparedness plans for regional or local disasters. Judging by the Hooper Bay fire, they don’t. The schools as an institution should be on the front-line of planning with the community. Schooling is an important tool for post-trauma resiliency. The school-in-a-box idea is important to consider if we do get shut off from the everyday routines due to a pandemic or flooding or storm surges. Or, school fire.

[In addition, the schools are often a very large beast in a small community when they operate independent to the community. For example, schools often require their own water supplies, diverting from the community’s sanitation facilities. Schools contribute relatively enormous amounts of solid waste, but don’t participate in community solid waste management. Schools contribute hazardous waste and air pollution to local communities, but are not participating in eliminating or reducing their impact.]

The written story and the audio story about UNICEF’s project is available from here

• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6354084

NPR has also provided links to further information.

All Things Considered, October 20, 2006 ·
A year after a powerful earthquake devastated South Asia’s Kashmir region, UNICEF is providing a unique kind of emergency relief: its School-in-a-Box program.

Each aluminum box contains classroom supplies for up to 80 students, and 10,000 kits were distributed in Pakistan over the past year. The 110-pound boxes are often carried by donkeys or small boats.

The culturally neutral materials include writing utensils, notebooks, rulers, counting blocks and posters, says Ellen van Kamthout, UNICEF’s senior project officer for education in emergencies….

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It is important to send historical diseases back to the historical record. Adults and children need their immunizations.

Each Village has a health professional who can give shots. Vaccinations are also available in Bethel at Public Health, Family Clinic, or Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp.

APRN Alaska News

Whooping cough cases on the rise in Southcentral [sic] Alaska
By Shane Iverson, KYUK

BETHEL, AK (2006-10-11) Confirmed cases of whooping cough are on the rise in southwestern parts of the state. Children under 12 months old are particularly at risk. But health officials say the key to preventing the spread of the disease is adult vaccinations.

• http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/apti/ news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=980093

listen to the story here–

• http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/apti/local-apti-534180.mp3

You’ll have to contact the company to order (not yet widely available). The idea is fun and might work. But it will cost more than ordinary soap. It might backfire in that without the device, will hands be washed the equivakent of two happy birthday sings? On the other hand (sic), habits once engrained are easily retained.

The squid thing is neat. And the soap is NOT anti-microbial (hurray!)

SquidSoap dispenser shows you when you’re done scrubbing
Squid Soap’s mission is to “train tomorrow’s great hand washers.” The pump-bottle is decorated with a plastic squid, and the top of the pump has an ink-stamper that leaves a ring on your hand when you pump your soap. Once you’ve scrubbed enough to remove the ink-stamp, you’ve also scrubbed enough to kill the germs on your hands.

from BoingBoing

• http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/22/squidsoap_dispenser_.html

Friday, September 22, 2006

Oh, for fun. mpb

Solar X-rays:

Geomagnetic Field:

From

• http://www.n3kl.org/

Forecasting aurora now more precise,
WEB SITE: A new page offers an hour-by-hour forecast for northern lights.

• Geophysical Institute Web site - http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast

Click thumbnails to see images better.

One summer I set out sticky fly strips (those strips of rubber coated paper that come in tubes) to cut down on the bugs outside my doorway. I was amazed at the types and numbers of insects that got stuck. When one strip was filled, I put up another.

Different insects and different numbers were caught at different times of the summer.

I think it would be interesting to see which week would have the most numbers of insects; which has the most variety of insect types. This could be plotted. Do the numbers and types of insects differ between placing the strips in the sunny side of the house or the darker side? windy or not windy side? When does the first insect get caught? Does that change from one year to the next? Is the first insect always the same? Do places on the coast have different insects from those upriver? If some of the trapped insects are the same kind, do these show up earlier downriver or upriver?

What’s the last bug?

The other thing I did was try an insect trap consisting of a bowl of water with one drop of liquid dish soap in it. The soap keeps the insects from walking on water (breaks the surface tension of the water). Fortunately, I used a white bowl, so the amazing colors of bugs stood out.

I drained most of the water away to concentrate the carcasses together and to make sure they were all at the same depth (in the same plane of view) so I could photograph them.

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16 AUGUST 2006 | BANGKOK — World-famous actor and martial arts expert Jackie Chan stars in a new television public service announcement to alert children and their families around the world to the dangers of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu….

The PSA was produced by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), with funding from the Government of Japan….
The children in the PSA, ranging in age from 6 to 9, were filmed at Sha Tin Junior School in Hong Kong….

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2006/ jackie_chan/en/index.html

Streaming video or to order–

http://tinyurl.com/gtvj4

Site Search Tags: video, television, PSAs, UN

Our little birds contributed to new scientific knowledge! I always let the children look through my Cabela’s polarized fishing spectacles, to identify polluted water or comprehend the effect of polarized light on sky, clouds, and vegetation color. (I once tried to get donations of the inexpensive glasses as Pollution Peepers, for the VISTAs/IGAPs to use as environmental prizes instead of candy and snacks.) Anyway, resetting the magnetic compass with polarized light is a clever solution, as the magnetic north wanders all over the place.

By Dennis O’Brien, Balto Sun reporter, Originally published August 11, 2006

…Biologists have known for decades that migrating birds use celestial cues and the earth’s magnetic field to find their way across continents and oceans.

But researchers from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and Lund University in Sweden say experiments with savannah sparrows in Alaska show the birds take readings of polarized sunlight at sunrise and sunset and use them to periodically recalibrate their magnetic compasses….

Rays of ordinary light vibrate in different directions, but polarized light rays vibrate in only one direction - making them difficult for us to see. Birds that migrate at night use them at sunrise and sunset, when the rays are most evident, Muheim said.

In the study, Muheim caught 50 savannah sparrows in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge and threw off their celestial compasses by placing polarized light filters over their cages for an hour at either sunrise or sunset….

Read the rest here

http://tinyurl.com/hh35p

Site Search Tags: migration

http://www.deltadiscovery.com

Letters to the Editor
4/11/06

Should we be concerned about Avian Flu?

The Avian Flu is a flue that spreads fast. Should we be concerned? We don’t know if it’s coming or not, so what should we do? Should we be prepared or just ignore it and maybe it will stay away. What if it comes and kills a lot of our people, we’ll wish we were prepared. We’ll never know when or if it will, it could be tomorrow or next year or never, but it think we should stock up on food, water, stove oil and other supplies we need. We’ll use and need them whether the flu comes or not so why not be safe, ‘cause we don’t want to be sorry. Some ways to be safe are not to touch any dead birds, cook your birds thoroughly, never touch anything after touching birds, and wash your hands after touching birds.

Andy Atti, Jenna Fox, Brenda Dock
Kipnuk High School
Read the rest of this entry »